SOCIAL SECURITY TO INCREASE BY 2%

Medicare Part B Also Expected To Rise

October 17, 2017: It’s now official. Just yesterday the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced that the 2018 COLA (Cost-of-Living Adjustment) for Social Security beneficiaries will be 2.0%, starting with benefits paid this coming January. This 2% COLA will produce an average increase of $27 in monthly SS benefits next year.

This is a marked difference in the COLA over the past couple years. Members, receiving Social Security, saw a meager 0.3% (three-tenths percent) COLA this year and zero raise in benefits for 2016. It also is the largest increase since 2011 when benefits were upped by 3.6%.

“This relatively positive news for members, who are SS recipients, must be tempered by reports that their Medicare Part B premiums may also be going up. While the federal CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) will not be making an official announcement for several weeks on the 2018 Part B premium, there are projections being circulated that for 2018 the Part B premium could increase to $134 – a $25 hike or 22.9% increase! (Please note that members who are (what we call) “direct payers” and are currently paying $134 monthly, would see no Part B increase if the projections hold true.)

Why such a whooping increase for many members? Remember the Part B premium is calculated each year, as it is now being done for next year. For this year and last year, most retirees got a break on a Part B increase and paid no or very little because they received no COLA in 2016 and only 0.3% in 2017. Basically they’ve been “protected”, and paying much less of a premium increase than they would have if Social Security’s COLA had been greater.

But the COLA will be more in 2018. Consequently next year Medicare enrollees, who have been receiving a break for two years and paying a reduced or no hike in the Part B premium, will no longer be protected and will be sharing equally in the increase.

Again please remember that the Medicare Part B increase has not been finalized and the figures are projections only. We will keep you posted.

BLS also calculates an experimental CPI for the elderly, or CPI-E, by using households whose reference person or spouse is 62 years of age or older. In 2009–2010, approximately 24 percent of all consumer units met the CPI-E's definition of having a reference person or spouse 62 years of age or older.

Since 1968 the Retired State, County and Municipal Employees Association has been the leading voice for Massachusetts public retirees and their families. Join with our 62,000 members as we continue the fight.